From left: Leo Clancy, Enterprise Ireland; Jillian Clarkin, Bank of Ireland; and Amy Neale, Delta Partners. Image: Julien Behal Photography
The Bank of Ireland-backed fund is hosting a Cork event on 15 September for start-ups and scaling businesses, with first-hand lessons from founders and investors.
A Delta Partners VC fund has selected Cork as its first stop to look for early-stage technology businesses in Ireland.
The Bank of Ireland-backed fund is hosting a special event on 15 September to show Cork entrepreneurs how VC investors and founders work together over a start-up’s journey, with first-hand lessons from both sides.
The early-stage fund was first announced in April with a target close of €70m over the next year. The Delta team plans to invest in 30 of Ireland’s most innovative and exciting start-ups over the next three to four years.
The fund will focus on seed-stage investment – where it will be the first institutional investor – and the Series A stage where companies require funds for scaling.
The Cork event is taking place at the Tyndall National Institute where special guest speakers will share their experiences.
This includes Carl Jackson, who founded Cork’s SensL Technologies Ltd which was later acquired by the Nasdaq-listed Fortune 500 company ON Semiconductor.
Delta partner Rich Barnwell will also share his entrepreneur experience, having founded Digit Games which was acquired by US games company Scopely in 2019.
“We are excited to host this first roadshow event in Cork, given the number of exciting companies we have had the chance to support in the region,” Delta VC partner Dermot Berkery said.
“By sharing insights into the VC/founder relationship, we hope to inspire entrepreneurs to optimise their business building with a network of support from Delta and our partners including Bank of Ireland.”
The Delta VC fund reached its first close earlier this year, with Bank of Ireland and Enterprise Ireland as cornerstone investors, supported by Fexco and several family offices.
Bank of Ireland head of technology, media and telecoms, Paul Swift, said: “We are delighted to see this latest fund coming on stream, providing much needed capital to seed and early-stage businesses at a very crucial point in their growth cycle and when they need it most.”
Since being established in 1994, Delta Partners has invested in more than 130 companies with more than €1.8bn in exit returns. Its portfolio includes machine learning start-up Peroptyx, Dublin-based health-tech company FoodMarble and proptech start-up Offr.
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